Hot on the heels of On Tour, his Cassavetes-style celebration of burlesque, Mathieu Amalric returns with a very different film - a brisk reinvention of classical French theatre. This knowingly updated version of Corneille's play was commissioned by the legendary Comédie Française, and Amalric shakes up the company's trad image with a bracingly modern treatment of a canonic text. Here, Alcandre is the concierge of a Paris hotel, who uses CCTV to reveal the whereabouts of errant Clindor, secretary to Matamore, a blowhard warrior - or rather, a computer games exec. The action - hingeing on Clindor's love for flighty rebel Isabelle - takes in near-farce in hotel rooms and bars, a rooftop shootout, and a last-minute reveal that whisks away the screen of dramatic convention. Dialogue is delivered immaculately in formal verse, and despite playful anachronism, Amalric's vision never feels forced on the text. Whether characters type out their soliloquies as emails, or perform them while smashing up luxury cars, this mischievous, superbly acted film offers a fitting rethink of the French dramatic heritage - with echoes of Michael Almereyda's 2000 slacker Hamlet and Godard's claustrophobic, hotel-set Détective.

Jonathan Romney